


Countless Feelings

by orphan_account



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alexandria Safe-Zone, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Set during season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 16:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10034684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Beth arrives in Alexandria, she feels it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Today's bethylweek prompt is 'relief'

When she arrived outside the gates, a wall separating her from what lay ahead, when a tall woman with a rifle shouted down to her, Beth felt it. The feeling wasn’t new. She’d experienced it before. A long time ago. She couldn’t put a name to it yet, but it felt surprisingly...nice.

When she’d woken up at Grady Hospital, realising she hadn’t escaped after all, she felt despair. _Why?_ , she asked. _Why am I still here?_ She knew the others had come to get her and Carol out. Why was she still there?

Because she was shot. Deadly headshot it’d seemed. They had to leave her behind. When? Months ago.

They’d left. Without her. Had gone who knew where. When it’d sunk in, she felt anger. Not at the loved ones. No. At those who’d saved her life, but made her wake up to a world that didn’t seem worth living in anymore.

When she lay in bed, head bandaged, cuts fixed, bruised, she felt lost. Numb. For the second time in her life she’d lost the world she knew. Why even bother…? For what?

When Beth decided one morning that after all the shit she’d gone through, she wasn’t ready to give up just yet, she felt strength.

No, she didn’t want to lie down and die. She couldn’t. Shouldn’t. The hollow space in her chest slowly, ever so slowly filled with something else. Something that provided the energy to keep going. The road to recovery was long and rocky, but images pressed into her mind with steadily increasing force.

Daryl. Maggie. Glenn.Rick, Carl and Judith. She didn’t know where they went, didn’t know if any of them were still alive.

She wouldn’t find out if she drowned in despair and grief though. Daryl hadn’t given up on her, had found her eventually, despite all odds. Couldn’t she do the same for them?

Yes, she could.

When Beth left the hospital, injuries healed as good as they would, she felt nervousness. Would she find them? Would she make it on her own?

 _I have to,_ she thought and remembered what she was fighting for. She’d outgrown the sweet teenage girl a long time ago. She was strong, smart, had learnt enough for whatever might cross her path out there.

Beth wasn’t prepared for Morgan though. She’d saved him from a walker, knife expertly sinking into its messed up skull. She didn’t even blink. She was shocked, however, when she saw the map. When she read 'Rick’. When she heard about DC. When she thought of Daryl and Maggie.

When she asked Morgan to join him, she felt hope.

They didn’t find Alexandria right away. They heard of a group that was living behind walls in a little town, of a rough group that’d arrived there a few weeks ago. Then they heard about the guy who looked like a former cop but could scare one off with his steely eyes. About the Asian boy. The young woman by his side. The baby and the teenager. The man with the crossbow.

Beth said their names when she stood at the gate, thin and dirty, aged and so very tired. Names that’d been burnt into her mind forever.

And then she got to see their faces, all of them changed but so very, very familiar. The nameless feeling got stronger. _Beth!,_ they shouted, along with a lot of questions she didn’t understand. She saw tears and smiles. She felt hugs and kisses.

When Daryl pulled her into his arms, holding on tight as if she’d disappear again if he didn’t, Beth felt relief.

Yes, _that_ was the feeling’s name. Relief because a seemingly endless journey had ended after all. Because a new one awaited her, and it was so full of promises and hope.

She’d kissed him that evening, for the very first time. She’d stay close by his side, watching Maggie and Glenn and all the others. 

That’s home, she thought and felt relieved again.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the show. No profit is made with this fic.


End file.
